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Tag: electricity rates

India’s newly-elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi says 400 million Indian citizens presently living without electrical service in rural areas of the country will have electricity within five years via upcoming, massive investments in solar power.

Not only that, but the country’s various electrical grids (which are not necessarily connected to each other, nor to the main national grid) will benefit significantly from thousands of distributed solar installations by adding to overall capacity and helping to stabilize weaker parts of the infrastructure.

PM-elect Modi sees no reason why each rooftop in the country cannot install a number of solar panels. Indeed, when millions of rooftops are involved with an average of 10 panels per rooftop (for example), and plenty of land that is unsuitable for growing crops and entire canal systems are already covered with solar panels, you know big numbers are coming.

So, what could India do with 1 billion solar panels?

For starters, every home and business in the country could have reliable (daytime) electricity. Many towns and villages in remote areas would have electrical power for the first time in their history, thereby allowing them entry into the world’s knowledge-based economy. With the advent of electricity, education and commerce should flourish and easy access to online government services will offer significant benefit to many millions of India’s citizens.

And for locations with home-battery backup or diesel-backup power, 24-hour-per-day electricity will become the norm. Employment and productivity in these regions could be expected to rise dramatically and online medical advice could be a lifesaver for those who live in remote areas. All of these are good things to have in a rapidly developing nation.

Then there is the possibility of electrical power sales between electrical power producers and energy consumers of all sizes, whether neighbour-to-neighbour or direct-to-utility, along the projected pathways of the constantly evolving grid system. Finally, (daytime) surplus electricity sales to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan might become commonplace and profitable.

Mr. Modi is taking on an unparalleled task, fraught with challenges. Here is a comment on the present state of affairs in India as it relates to the proposed rural electrification of the country.

Four hundred million Indians, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined, lack electricity. An official of India’s newly elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, recently said that his government wants every home to be able to run at least one light bulb by 2019. Administrations have made similar claims numerous times since India gained independence in 1947, but this time renewable power sources could bring the longstanding promise closer to a realistic vision.

In a sprawling, diverse country of more than 1.2 billion residents this task is tantamount to a second green revolution, the first being agricultural advances that relieved famine across the subcontinent in the middle of the 20th century. — ThinkProgress

India’s utility industry is at a ‘tipping point’

The Indian utility industry is comprised of a mishmash of coal-fired generation, less than reliable nuclear power plants noted for their high maintenance costs, oil-fired power generation, along with some hydro-electric dams and biomass power generation. The ‘pylons and powerlines’ component of the national grid in India is in need of a complete overhaul. On top of all that, the fossil and nuclear power producers have been heavily subsidized for decades and theft of electricity continues to be a multi-billion dollar problem.

Prior to the Indian election, the country’s utility industry was summed up by industry expert, S.L. Rao;

Power retailers were behind on 155 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) of payments to their suppliers as of Jan. 31, reducing their ability to provide electricity to customers. Blackouts may spread as state utilities in Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra slash consumer bills in a populist wave before elections. That’s jeopardizing a $31 billion government bailout of the industry, which requires companies to boost rates.

“The power sector needs tough politics, and the only person in politics today who might be capable of that kind of toughness is Modi,” said S.L. Rao, the head of India’s central electricity regulator from 1998 to 2001, according to his website.

The Indian utility industry “has reached a stage where either we change the whole system quickly or it will collapse.” Rao, who was appointed to the regulatory body by an independent committee, said he maintains no political affiliation. — Bloomberg

On the bright side however, India’s outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had begun a process to inform citizens of the benefits of renewable energy and was instrumental in promoting a 4 GigaWatt(GW) solar park being built in four stages. At present it is only partially operational, with 1GW of power flowing now and construction of the three remaining stages continues at a brisk pace. When completed, it will easily be the largest solar park in the world.

Dr. Singh also directed policy towards massive wind power capacity additions, with major offshore wind installations due to come online in 2015. However, even with the efforts of PM Singh, only 4% of total electrical generation came from renewable energy in 2013. Prime Minister Singh’s policy goal of 20GW of solar by 2022 looks likely to be superceded by PM-elect Modi. Perhaps in dramatic fashion.

Tulsi Tanti, Chairman of the Pune India based wind power company The Suzlon Group, told the newswire today that, “the BJP-led government will provide an environment conducive for growth and investments, with major reforms in the infrastructure and renewable energy sector. This is important as India’s economic environment will act as a catalyst in reviving the global economy.” — Forbes

It is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work

Hundreds of thousands of direct and related jobs are expected during the 2014-2024 Indian renewable energy boom. And, bonus for consumers, the falling cost of solar and wind power electricity rates will have an overall deflationary effect on the national economy.

Later, as solar and wind power begin to displace fossil and nuclear power, declining healthcare costs, improved crop yields, cleaner air in cities resulting in a better quality of life for citizens — the new and stable energy paradigm will remove many of the historic constraints on the country and its people, allowing India to become all that it can and should be.

At this point, it looks like India’s transition to renewable energy may happen quickly and turn out to be the good-news story of the decade with massive economic, environmental, and human health ramifications — not just for India but for the region and the world. Hats off to India!

Home Battery systems augment your energy needs

Home Battery systems can collect and store electricity from rooftop solar panels, lower utility bills, and provide electrical power during utility company power outages.

Ever since lower priced solar panels hit the market it has become obvious that home battery systems are the next step for our modern, but still evolving, energy grid.

Installing solar panels on your rooftop has never been easier as panel prices have fallen by 80% over the past two years and installation rebate programs are generous in many jurisdictions. But getting all that free daytime energy from the Sun won’t do you much good unless you can store it for later use.

Having a home battery system allows you to store the energy that your solar panels collect every day.

Solar power can make economic sense in many locations. But solar with a battery system will rock your world! OK, maybe not rock your world, but it makes a lot of sense if such a home energy storage system can be had for a reasonable price.

Home Battery Systems can make sense even without solar panels

Without a home battery, you can still sell your excess solar generated electricity to the grid if your utility has a net-metering programme. But some of your profit is eaten up when you must buy back some of that electricity after the Sun sets, at a higher price. Yes, every day of the year.

For homeowners, having home energy storage means you could save a lot of money over ten or twenty years if the system is cost-effective to begin with — and a battery system is a wonderful thing to have during utility company power outages.

If you live in a jurisdiction where you can buy electricity from your utility company at a very low rate during certain hours and store that energy with your home energy storage system for later use, that can work for you — regardless if you have solar panels or not.

Peak rates can be $0.38 per kWh (or higher), while off-peak rates can be $0.08 per kWh (or lower) making the peak rate about five times more expensive in this example, than the off-peak rate.

Prognosticating ten or twenty years out, who’s to say what electricity rates may be? There always seems to be a reason to hike the rates.

Your home or business can run on the power from your stored electricity during high electricity rate periods, and sometime past midnight, your system can be scheduled to automatically connect to the grid and recharge itself at the lowest possible rate.

Home Battery systems protect you during power outages

Apart from collecting solar energy all day, or saving money due to electricity rate fluctuations, (or both), having a stored energy system can protect you from utility company power interruptions, especially for those in rural areas or other areas where power outages are common.

For homeowners in rural areas and who may be subject to frequent power service interruptions, having battery backup can make sense, particularly during storms, typhoons, or very hot or cold weather.

Of course, the old standby has always been an expensive-to-fuel diesel generator and the noxious fumes that go along with it.

Emergency service providers, schools, and other important government buildings and businesses could also benefit from such in-situ battery systems. We can look at a veterinary clinic or other examples where uninterrupted electrical power is important. With stored energy backup, electrical power is automatically restored within a few seconds and the vet can continue with the days’ operations on her four-footed patients — just that easy!

SolarCity and Tesla combine forces to offer home energy solutions

It is interesting to note that Tesla is working with Solar City to offer home batteries, using their proprietary Electric Vehicle (EV) battery technology. A fascinating development and one that holds game-changing promise.

In many cases, when an EV battery has reached the end of its life in an automotive application, only 30 percent or less of its life has been used. This leaves a tremendous amount of life that can be applied to other applications like powering a structure before the battery is recycled. — Pablo Valencia, GM senior manager of battery lifecycle management

Innovations like recycled EV batteries will pave the way forward to a viable and affordable distributed energy future and are an efficient second-use of this technology.

EV batteries store a huge amount of power, enough to easily power a home for two or three days in the case of a service interruption — and in the case of storing energy for everyday use during peak rate periods, would be well within their capabilities.